• Lawyer for genocide accused dictator gunned down in Guatemala

    A lawyer of Guatemalan former dictator Efrain Rios Montt has died after been shot down in the country’s capital on Wednesday.

    Defence lawyer Francisco Palomo was reportedly shot dead by two unknown men on a motorbike.
  • Former senior communist leader faces war crimes retrial in Hungary

    A former senior official with the Hungarian Communist Party who was earlier convicted of war crimes will face a retrial, ruled a Budapest appeals court.

  • BDS movement 'strategic threat' - Israel

    The Israeli government has sharply criticised the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which campaigns for greater isolation of Israel and Israeli trade due to the occupation of Palestinian land, termed as illegal by the UN.

    The latest attack on the movement by senior figures, including Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, comes after the UK's National Union of Students decided on Tuesday to support the BDS campaign and French telecoms giant Orange said it wants to cut business ties with Israel.

    The prime minister responded angrily on Thursday, calling on "the French government to publicly repudiate the miserable statement and miserable action by a company that is under its partial ownership", AP reported.

  • Indian troop deaths in Maoist ambush

    At least 20 Indian soldiers are said to have been killed during an attack on a convoy by Maoist fighters in the state of Manipur.

    The attack comes amidst increased tensions over the death of a local woman activist,  killed by members of the paramilitary Assam Rifles. The government has accepted responsibility for the death of 55-year old Ruisoting and agreed to pay compensation to her family.

  • Buhari vows inquiry into war crimes allegations

    Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari said the government will leave "no stone unturned" in investigating the reports of widespread human rights violations committed by the military.

    Amnesty International this week released a report saying the military had killed over 8,000 men and boys who were in its custody.

  • EU to continue sanctions on Russia
    The EU will continue sanctions on Russia in efforts to maximise pressure on the Kremlin to implement its side of the Minsk cease-fire agreement reports the Wall Street Journal.
  • Thousands of deaths in Nigerian military custody - Amnesty

    Over 7,000 males have died while in custody of the Nigerian military over the last four years, Amnesty International has revealed in a new report.

    Over 20,000 people are said to have been arrested in operations against Boko Haram militants, the UK-based rights group said.

    Nigeria's military has rejected the allegations, calling the report biased and the statistics "spurious".

    The report, entitled Stars on their shoulders, Blood on their hands, names several senior officers and calls for investigations into their role in murder, torture and enforced disappearances.

    “This sickening evidence exposes how thousands of young men and boys have been arbitrarily arrested and deliberately killed or left to die in detention in the most horrific conditions. It provides strong grounds for investigations into the possible criminal responsibility of members of the military, including those at the highest levels,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

  • Myanmar must ‘end discrimination’ of Rohingya says Obama

    US President Barack Obama said Myanmar must “put an end to discrimination” of Rohingya Muslims in the country if it is to succeed on is transition to democracy.

    Addressing a group of young Asians at the White House Mr Obama was asked what the country needed to do to succeed, as it begins to shift from decades of military rule.

    "I think one of the most important things is to put an end to discrimination against people because of what they look like or what their faith is,” said Mr Obama. “And the Rohingya have been discriminated against. And that’s part of the reason they’re fleeing."

    Asked how he would feel about where he would want to live if he was Rohingya, Mr Obama said, "I would want to stay in the land where my parents had lived, but I’d want to make sure that my government was protecting me and that people were treating me fairly."

  • Cultural genocide committed by Canada finds Truth Commission

    A summary of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada found that actions conducted by the state amounted to cultural genocide, reports CTV news.

  • Sudan's president sworn in for another 5 year term
    Sudan’s President, Omar al-Bashir was sworn in for another five years on Tuesday, reports the Associated Press.

    Omar al-Bashir, who has been indicted for war crimes by the International Cr

  • Wanted Nazi war criminal dies in Canada

    A top suspected Nazi war criminal has died in a hospital in Canada, just weeks after Russia demanded his extradition.

    Vladimir Katriuk was No. 2 on the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s list of most wanted Nazi war criminals, and passed away aged 93. Two weeks ago the Russian government demanded Canada extradite Mr Katriuk, of Ukrainian ancestry, so he can face trial for alleged war crimes. Canada had refused.

    Canada’s Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs had also called on the Canadian government to “take the necessary steps to ensure that, if guilty, Katriuk be held accountable for war crimes committed in collaboration with the Nazi regime.”

  • UN envoy to Syria condemns government bombing

    The United Nations envoy to Syria condemned barrel bombing raids reportedly carried out by the Syrian government, which have left more than 70 civilians killed.

    Staffan de Mistura said in a statement,

    “The news of aerial bombing by Syrian helicopters on a civilian market area of the Aleppo neighbourhood of Al Shaar deserves the strongest international condemnation.”

    Syrian government helicopters reportedly dropped barrel bombs in the northern Aleppo province killing at least 70, on a day where air raids left more than 140 dead.

    British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said "this is further shocking proof of the horrific and indiscriminate methods the Assad regime is using to kill and injure innocent civilians, including children."

  • ‘What happened to Yazidis is nothing but genocide’ - Kurdish ambassador

    The Kurdistan Regional Government’s Representative to the USA said the Yazidis in Iraq have faced “nothing but genocide” from Islamic State militants, after mass killings and expulsions from their historic homeland in Iraq.

    Speaking to the Huffington Post, Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman said "What happened to the Yazidis is nothing but genocide." "Anybody who denies that, I think, is just using political maneuvering, which is shameful and despicable in my book," she added.

    Detailing the plight of the Yazidis, including the enslavement of women and children by Islamic State, Ms Rahman said, "It's actually just so horrific to think that today in the 21st century, this still goes on -- that there are people who do the selling and that there are people who do the buying."

    "Genocide internationally has legal obligations on everybody," she added. "All of us, internationally, by law, are obliged to prevent genocide."

  • Electrical power to Colombia's largest port city severed by FARC militants
    Colombia’s port city of Buenaventura was left without power on Sunday after FARC militants destroyed an electrical tower, reports Agence France Presse.

    The Colombian government has blamed FARC for the attack, which left Colombia’s largest p

  • South Sudan expels UN relief coordinator
    South Sudan expelled the United Nations resident relief coordinator and deputy envoy to the country on Monday, reports Al-Jazeera.

    The UN Secretary General Bank Ki-moon condemned the move by the gover

Subscribe to International Affairs